I’m back from a wonderful but tiring couple of days at the best park in the NPS, Antietam National Battlefield.Batteries are recharged, but I need a little rest all the same. In the following, click on the thumbnails for full size images.

I left Pittsburgh at 6:15 Saturday morning and arrived at the visitor’s center around 9:30 to pick up a tour schedule and a long sleeved T-shirt that I found for $10 – I heard on the radio that the temperature wouldn’t go much over 70 degrees.The parking lots were already filling up, and in fact I saw Superintendent John Howard have to park on the other side of the old Hagerstown Pike.I spoke quickly with rangers Mannie Gentile and John Hoptak and Virtual Antietam tycoon Steve Recker before leaving for the Sharpsburg Heritage Festival in town.

At the Save Historic Antietam Foundationbooth I met up with fellow board members Bill Maharay, Don Macreadie, and Tom Clemens.In short order we were joined by board members Dana Shoaf, Paula Reed and John Schildt, Tom’s better 89% Angela Clemens, and SHAF web master and fellow blogger Brian Downey.

We hung for awhile at the booth and schmoozed the crowd, then Bill and I walked over to the former German Reformed Church (now the Christ Reformed Church) to see the recently refurbished and rededicated stained glass windows of the 11th and 16th Connecticut regiments, as well as the hopefully soon to be restored Pennsylvania GAR window and the rest of this gem of a building.The Reverend Delancey Catlett helpfully and patiently answered a myriad of questions – go here to learn more about the church and the windows.Bill and I walked back to the festival, and I accompanied Brian back down to the church after retrieving my camera.Here’s a picture of the impressive 16th CT window – my camera doesn’t do it justice.

After watching the battle of the (Rebel and Union) bands and hearing the benediction back at the festival, Brian and I drove up to the VC and spoke briefly with rangers Gentile and Hoptak once more.I also saw author Mark Snell in the bookstore, but didn’t get a chance to speak with him.Brian and I had to scoot over to the Burnside’s Bridge parking area for the start of a walk of the 9th Corps assault and final attack, led by Ranger Brian Baracz.

It was a crystal clear day, a little cool but not so cool that I couldn’t shed my long sleeved shirt.We walked the new trail east of the bridge, and got to see the long obscured view photographed by Alexander Gardner so famously in 1862 (see here).Here’s my version:

We crossed back over the creek and hit the final assault trail.I did some work on the Otto Farm Lane on a SHAF work day in 2005, but had not walked the trail before.Brian had with him some Antietam on the Web maps of his own creation (based on the Carman maps) which really helped interpret things for us.

After 2.5 miles and 2.5 hours on the field, we went back to the VC – specifically the New York monument – for an artillery demonstration, which is always a good time.Love those polished brass Napoleons. Also love things that go boom. And there were two of them!

During the demo we spoke a bit with Ranger Hoptak and I drafted him to write an article on General Nagle for the SHAF newsletter.Here are Brian and John relaxing on the steps of the New York monument at the end of what must have been a long day for John.

Brian and I stopped for a bite and drink at Capt. Bender’s Tavern in Sharpsburg and then headed once again to the VC to meet up with Tom and Angela for Ethan Rafuse’s lecture on McClellan at Antietam.I’ll have details on that tomorrow.After the talk, we all headed back to Tom’s house in Keedysville, where Ethan joined us after selling and signing about 12,000 copies of McClellan’s War.We sat outside on the pleasant patio talking Civil War and other things until the chill drove us inside.Brian headed home and Ethan back to his hotel, but not before he signed my copies of the McClellan book (a favorite of mine) and his First Bull Run study, A Single Grand Victory (another favorite). I then retired to the really cool guest room/library addition to the Clemens’ 19th century home.

That’s enough for tonight.I’ll post more tomorrow, but in the meantime you can read more about the weekend at Brian’s and Mannie’s blogs.

Bright and early (well, probably dark and early) Saturday morning I’ll head down to Sharpsburg for the Heritage Day festivities in town and the anniversary programs at the park.I’ll spend some time at the Save Historic Antietam Foundation (SHAF) booth at the festival (outside Nutter’s Ice Cream Shop), so stop by and say hello if you get a chance.

I’ll be visiting with friend and SHAF president Tom Clemens, and also expect to see fellow bloggers Brian Downey, Mannie GentileandJohn Hoptakthis weekend, as well as CWTI’s Dana Shoaf who will speak about the 16th CT as part of the SHAF lecture series.I think most of this group will probably be in attendance at Ethan Rafuse’slecture Saturday night.I also hope to take some of the ranger led tours on Saturday and Sunday before heading back home late Sunday afternoon.

I’m about to embark on another Bull Run inspired distraction.I learned early on in this process that if I was going to gain an understanding of not only what happened but why it happened, I was going to have to understand what motivated the primary actors to do what they did.Recently, popular history has focused on psychological motivations.Unfortunately, not only are most writers that have participated in this baneful practice not historians, they aren’t psychologists/psychiatrists either.As a result what we get is a parlor trick, working backwards from an arbitrary diagnosis and picking out events or even unfounded speculations to “prove” the validity of the finding.

While it’s certainly not as sexy, I think we can find more sound basis for decision making in the actor’s training, his past experiences, and what was known or assumed to be true at the time.For instance, several authors dealing with First Bull Run have emphasized pre-battle incidents with masked batteries at Vienna and Big Bethel and how they affected the movements of McDowell’s army.The explanations seemed to make sense to me at the time, with lots of evidence in newspapers and soldiers’ letters.But what that really proved was that the newspapers and private soldiers were very concerned with masked batteries.I’ve found that the movements of McDowell’s army can be more reasonably understood by looking at military doctrine (training) and limited resources, primarily cavalry.Not very exciting, I know.

To understand a little better the workings of the minds of guys like McDowell, Beauregard and Johnston, I felt it was necessary to do some “fancy book learning”.First I sat down and read Makers of Modern Strategy – Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler, an old ROTC standard that has since been updated through the Nuclear Age, though I only read up through Clausewitz. (While I realize Clausewitz was not translated until after the ACW, Halleck referenced him in his 1846 Elements of Military Art and Science, so reading the summary on him made sense.)Then I read the 1862 edition of Jomini’s The Art of War.Dry, dry, dry, let me tell you, but important to read if only because reading it helps you realize that most folks who talk about Jomini have never read Jomini.Standard tactical manuals like Mahan’s Out-Postand Hardee’s U. S. Infantry Tactics are sitting on my shelves, too, as is the 1861 Revised Regulations for the Army of the United States.And of course an understanding of the War with Mexico is essential, so I read Eisenhower’s So Far from Godwhich is a nice overview, but I think I need something with more meat, perhaps K. Jack Bauer’s (no, really, Jack Bauer!) The Mexican War.I’ve picked up some other interesting MW titles, including D. H. Hill’s letters, but I’m afraid of getting out of control.Input from MW aficionados is welcome.

But if there is one name which stands above all others as an influence on the minds of professional (and volunteer, for that matter) soldiers of the period it is Napoleon Bonaparte.And if there is one book that is considered The Book on Napoleon and his campaigns it is David Chandler’s 1966 The Campaigns of Napoleon.I finally found it (used, of course) at a reasonable price – $40.This doorstop is 1,095 pages long, which will put me behind on my Bull Run reading, but I think it must be done.I’m a s-l-o-w reader, so this will be the bulk of my reading for the next couple of months.I received one valuable tip from my friend Dave Powell, who says I should read the bit on Art of War first and then read the whole thing in sequence.Any other advice is appreciated.

Later tonight or tomorrow I’ll post some thoughts on several sources of confusion regarding accounts of the action at Bull Run, including Sherman’s Battery (once again), Zouaves and red pants and/or shirts.

Today I picked up a copy of the September issue of America’s Civil Warand was happy to see inside a few examples of cross-media pollination.

Now, in no way am I equating “new” and “old” with “good” and “bad”.I view web projects (blogs) as different from print media (magazines), not necessarily better, and perhaps compatible.America’s Civil War is making an attempt to incorporate the blogosphere in its pages, I think in an effective manner.

In March 2007 the magazine included an articleon Civil War blogs in general and now includes a review in brief of a featured Civil War blog (including this one) in each issue.And in the July issue, America’s Civil War ran a piecesummarizing several posts from this very blog.This trend is continued in the September issue.

In the Letters section on page 6, Bruce Allardice expands on his research conducted in response to my ruminations on the similar names of a Super Bowl MVP and a Confederate staff officer.This letter was born of one posted here by Mr. Allardice.

These postsby the happiest ranger in the National Park Service, Mannie Gentile, are featured on page 12 of the Open Fire! section.It includes a photo and quotes from the blog posts, as well as a link to the site. Blogger Brian Dirck’s A. Lincoln Blogis profiled on page 14.

The most pleasant surprise of all is the feature article on page 48, “Damage Done to My Farm” by the afore-mentioned Ranger Gentile.It consists of annotations of 11 documents, illustrations and photographs associated with the Roulette Farm on the battlefield of Antietam. The magazine offers an expanded online article here, and you can read Mannie’s take on the experience here. I’m a big fan of Mannie’s blog, in no small part due to his skillful and, more important, economical use of words.I previously drafted Ranger Gentile to contribute an article to the Save Historic Antietam Foundation’s newsletter, which I now edit.Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of him in print.

I have lots of stuff to write about, but not much time in which to write it.

I got back from my Road Trip on Sunday.All-in-all it was a productive trip. At Carlisle I turned up a nifty letter written by a member of Co. C, 205th PA – my great-grandfather’s unit – outside Petersburg in which preferences for the upcoming presidential election were forcefully expressed.I also copied some material on First Bull Run that should prove useful in my examination of the mystery of the red-trousered Zouaves seen everywhere on the field.And I found some info on the 16th CT at Antietam that should prove useful.Thanks again to Art Bergeron and the rest of the staff there for all their help.

I stayed in Gettysburg on Thursday night, and killed some time at the Gateway Gettysburg Theater watching 300.I dug it, but was taken aback by the sudden emergence of Scottish accents midway through.Not a chick flick, that’s for sure.The next day I did some book shopping in town and cruised the visitor’s center (VC) and battlefield quickly before turning south down 15 for Sharpsburg.

At the archives of Antietam National Battlefield on Friday I found a lot of primary source material (letters) on the 16th CT, and some other information on the regiment provided to the park by descendants over the years.The most pleasant and serendipitous find was the resting place of my great-grandfather.He apparently resides in the Vicksburg Cemetery in or near Roaring Springs, Blair County, PA.Ted Alexander just happened to have a copy of a book on Blair County soldiers in the park’s library.Thanks, Ted, for your assistance.

I dined at the Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown with my father-in-law and his brothers on Friday night.Later we crowded around my laptop to watch the Historical Films documentary “Antietam”, the film shown in the VC.On Saturday we toured the Elmwood Cemetery in Shepherdstown, resting place of Confederate staff officer and author of Stonewall Rode with Me Henry Kyd (rhymes with “tied”) Douglas, as well as Bull Run participants Lt. Col. William Fitzhugh Lee of the 33rd VA (mortally wounded at BR1) and William W. Kirkland of the 11th (later 21st) NC.

We also spent some time at the Rumsey memorial in Shepherdstown.If you have been laboring under the impression that Robert Fulton invented the steamboat, go here for a history lesson.We managed to avoid the May Day parade in town, which based on the attire of the marchers, the name of the parade, and the presence of a college campus appears to be some mix of “the arts”, Bolshevism and bon ton roulette.

We crossed the Potomac and stopped by the Douglas home Ferry Hill Place; the Grove Farm (site of the famous Brady photos of Lincoln and McClellan); Lee’s HQ; the National Cemetery; and the Pry House and its medical display (my father-in-law’s brother is a retired physician).The next stop was the VC at Antietam.I ran into ranger and fellow blogger John Hoptak and had a nice but too short talk with him.Next up was ranger Mannie Gentile (left) who gave an engaging overview of the campaign to a full room on the observation deck.Rather than go into the details of why Harper’s Ferry was in Virginia in 1862 but is in West Virginia today, Mannie simply explained that it was done “to confuse middle schoolers”.Works for me.We didn’t join Mannie’s group on the field, but I did get a chance to speak with him for a few minutes in the VC on Sunday.

I gave the relatives a quick tour of the field, going first to the seldom visited Upper Bridge, where most of the Federal Army that fought on the 17th crossed the Antietam.We took a brief detour to Starke Ave. to view the stone outcropping behind which members of the Iron Brigade took position.Then it was south to the Juan Valdez McKinley coffee monument and the Georgian’s Overlook.

After that we drove to Turner’s Gap via Boonesboro – sadly, I had no time to stop at the creamery.Rather than walk the mile down the Appalachian Trail from the Mountain House (Stone Mountain Inn) to Fox’s Gap, the group opted to trek up to the Washington Monument.The view from atop the monument was well worth the climb. After that it was back to our hotel (the Clarion) in Shepherdstown for dinner and an early night.

On Sunday I had just enough time to drive back to the VC, where I spoke briefly with Mannie.I needed to at least visit the United Church of Christ in town to see the former site of the 16th CT stained glass window – now marked by white plywood.Service was letting out and I had some time to chat with Reverend Catlett.It turns out he has some documentation on the window in question.Unfortunately we were both pressed for time, so we left each other with the understanding that I would be returning to look at the material.

It was a busy four days. I regret that I did not have enough time at Carlisle, the ANB archives or the UCC in Sharpsburg.I’ve learned a lot about scheduling for this type of trip, and hopefully will make fewer mistakes along those lines in the future.

I keep forgetting that I have plenty of photos of my own to post.Here are a few from a Spring 2006 trip to the Shenandoah Valley (hmmm.. looks like I never labeled these).Our guide was the previously mentioned Gary Ecelbarger.The site is PortRepublic’s “Coaling”.Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.

a) view from base of the hill; b & c) views from atop The Coaling to the PortRepublic battlefield; d & e) exhibits on the site – d shows Keith Rocco’s painting featured here.

I belong to an email discussion group, The Civil War Discussion Group (CWDG), which for the past five springs has gathered for battlefield tours. Each year has alternated between eastern theater and western theater battlefields.Last year featured the 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign with guide Gary Ecelbarger.

This year, June 8-10, the plan is for three days of touring at Shiloh. Guides will be the group’s own Dave Powell, who you may recognize as the author of several magazine articles and the designer of a few popular war games, and longtime NPS ranger Charlie Spearman.Operations will be based out of Corinth, MS.

If you’re interested in attending or want more info, leave a message here in the comments section.Be sure to use a valid email account when you leave your message.The fee has yet to be determined, since it is dependent upon the number of attendees.But the group is not in this for profit.The price will include the tour bus, guide expense, any park fees, lunches and one dinner.Lodging and other meals are on your own.

Dulce bellum inexpertis

“I am sending you these little incidents as I hear them well authenticated. They form, to the friends of the parties, part of the history of the glorious 21st. More anon.”

About

Hello! I’m Harry Smeltzer and welcome to Bull Runnings, where you'll find my digital history project on the First Battle of Bull Run which is organized under the Bull Run Resources section. I'll also post my thoughts on the processes behind the project and commentary on the campaign, but pretty much all things Civil War are fair game. You'll only find musings on my “real job” or my personal life when they relate to this project. My mother always told me "never discuss politics or religion in mixed company”, and that's sound advice where current events are concerned.

The Project

This site is more than a blog. Bull Runnings also hosts digitized material pertaining to First Bull Run. In the Bull Run Resources link in the masthead and also listed below are links to Orders of Battle, After Action Reports, Official Correspondence, Biographical Sketches, Diaries, Letters, Memoirs, Newspaper Accounts and much, much more. Take some time to surf through the material. This is a work in process with no end in sight, so check back often!